On Jan. 15, Upper Saucon Township supervisors will have their day in court.

They hope Lehigh County Court will reverse a decision by the township zoning board and allow them to remove a wolf and five wolf hybrids from a township couple's property.

The supervisors are appealing a 1991 zoning board ruling that William and Cheryll Stoneback's keeping wolf dogs at their home is close enough to animal husbandry to be a permitted land use.

The zoning board's final decision was a reversal of an earlier ruling and caused a controversy among township residents and supervisors in late 1990 and early 1991.

In November 1990, the zoning board ruled against the Stonebacks, claiming that raising wolf dogs is not animal husbandry, and that William Stoneback gave misleading information to get a kennel permit.

The Stonebacks appealed the decision with the Court of Common Pleas. They filed a second application with the zoning board in January 1991.

This time, armed with testimony and case law, the Stonebacks convinced the zoning board that raising wolf hybrids is close enough to animal husbandry and should be allowed in the township's agricultural zoning district.

This decision prompted some of the Stonebacks' neighbors to voice their concerns about the wolf dogs to the supervisors. Apart from fears that the animals could attack, the neighbors said the wolf-dog howling kept them up at night.

In February 1991, the supervisors, responding to the neighbors' fears and rejecting the advice of their lawyer, voted 3-2 to appeal the zoning board's decision.

Township solicitor John Roberts agrees with the supervisors that wolf dogs should not be kept in Upper Saucon. But, he said, in this case, they have a strong chance of losing a costly appeal in a fight he estimates has already cost the township $10,000.

He added that this case will not set a precedent. Getting the animals off the Stonebacks' property will not stop others from keeping wolf dogs. "If they want to keep wolf hybrids out of the township, they should amend the ordinance," Roberts said.

Supervisor Allan Cassaday said he has no problem spending the money if enough residents are concerned. "In my position in public office I have to listen to the public's concerns," Cassaday said. "And it seems the majority of the residents are worried that the animals can be potentially dangerous to children."

Cassaday also said he and others are concerned with the Stonebacks' breeding and selling wolf pups to other township residents.

Although they have not bred the wolf hybrids for two years, Stoneback said it is because of lack of time not desire. "I plan to continue to breed these dogs and sell the pups," he said. "But if I thought they posed any threat to my neighbors, I wouldn't."

At a supervisors meeting in March 1991, William Stoneback gave supervisors copies of articles about wolf dogs that say the animals are genetically indistinguishable from dogs and avoid confrontations with humans.

Mike Schmit, the director for the eastern region of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, said that wolf hybrids behave as shy dogs 99.9 percent of the time. But that other 0.1 of a percent, the wolf hybrids can act on wolf instincts and become dangerous.

"A small child falling or someone taking food away from the wolf dogs could solicit such a response," he said.

"That is not a viable argument," Stoneback said. "You could say that about any dog."

Stoneback said he and his wife have taken great pains and expense to make sure the animals are not in a position to hurt anybody.

He added that they have a $30,000 kennel on their property and fences to keep the animals in.